Dilmah initiates conservation corridor on Endana Estate

Dilmah, in its efforts to foster respect for the environment and encourage harmonious coexistence of man and nature, initiated through Dilmah Conservation, a Nature Corridor on Endana Estate, in the Sabaragamuwa Province. The initiative focuses on the restoration and revitalisation of a habitat, by connecting two isolated forest patches located in the vicinity of the Sinharaja Rain Forest.

Located on the border of the globally significant Sinharaja Forest Complex, Endana Estate is endowed with many species, both fauna and flora. The estate lies in a part of the land that has separated Iharakanda and Walankanda Forest Reserves by tea plantations and human settlements for over 100 years. The nature corridor was strategically established to connect the two forest reserves so that fauna and flora can migrate freely between the two locations leading to greater genetic diversity. In 2018, Dilmah Founder Merrill J. Fernando uprooted tea plants at the Endana Tea Estate as a symbol of the project’s initiation, the company said in a statement.

Dilmah ensures to continue monitoring and restoring the habitat, as an initial baseline survey revealed that, it is home to a high level of fauna diversity including 34 endemic species and 20 threatened species, while many birds and mammals use the estate as a route to migrate between the forest reserves. Furthermore, to ensure sustainability, the threatened endemic plant species selected for the restoration were based on micro and macro elements, such as, species distribution patterns in Sinharaja tropical lowland rainforest, and the conservation status of species according to the IUCN Redlist.